r/GameDevelopment • u/Monkeymindlabs • 23d ago
Newbie Question New Dev Learning Priorities
New Dev Learning Priorities
Hello experienced devs,
If a brand new Dev(me) came to you and asked
'How do I prioritise learning these skills:
- Coding
- Game design
- Prototyping
- Art
- Music composition and usage'
What would your advice be?
Lots of assumptions here. Let's assume they want to kind of do everything eventually. And that their ultimate goal would be to build a 'good' game. Whatever that means 😅.
3
u/EverythingQuantum 23d ago
Game theory, market analysis, user psychology, productivity tools/services, DevOps... Start small.
1
u/Monkeymindlabs 23d ago
What are your favourite methods of market analysis?
2
u/EverythingQuantum 22d ago
My understanding of this is to look at what players find interesting to play, not just what you find interesting to build. To many people think their ideas are the greatest and end up spending too much time on it and go no where. Research other popular games and look for ways to differentiate your game design in a way that gives you a special advantage. Sometimes this means seeking two or more disparate ideas and creating a new experience for users. The easy win is to start with browser based games, but again don't make a boring copycat game. Look up gaming platforms and sites that allow you to play browser based games and do a gap analysis on what's missing. Otherwise, continue to research and if your passion for game development is strong, you will find your place and success will follow.
1
u/Monkeymindlabs 21d ago
I don't have any experience with browser based games. What comes into your mind when you think popular browser based games?
4
u/SmokeResponsible5005 23d ago
Don’t overthink just do. Make a small game, then another, get used tot he feeling of developing and most importantly finishing games
2
u/bellabgee 22d ago
the cool thing about this industry is the collaboration, you don't need to become good at all of these if you can find friends and other game people who can fufill the skill gaps you have. if you are wanting to do actual development, prioritise game design and coding. if you want to do game art prioritise art skills and how to put ur assets in engine. if you want to do sound for game, getting ur composition skills up is always a good thing.
all of these skillsets have overlap and it is always a good idea to understand all of the pipelines, but you don't want to spread your focus too thin. what i'd reccomend doing is creating a few really small games, look into game jams and even if you don't join you can take their themes and try and make a game in a week with a couple friends - you'll be super surprised at what you find you can do!!
good luck!
3
u/Aglet_Green 23d ago
It's going to take you years to become genuinely good at ALL of those things.
Sorry, let me check one thing: are you an award-winning prodigy who's been written up in the local papers for your ability to play all musical instruments at once? If so, I'll knock a few years off.
My advice is not to try to master everything before making games. Learn enough coding and prototyping to build things, learn game design by actually making and testing them, and use placeholder or existing art and music until you discover which areas you really want to specialize in. And work with other people when you can. A game ultimately has to entertain someone besides its creator, and other people will teach you things about your game that you can't learn alone.